Collier Seminole State Park is one of Florida’s oldest state
parks and is home to the last “Walking Dredge”. It was built in Michigan and was used to dig the ditches that
provided the rocks and dirt to build the Tamiami Trail (route 41) from Tampa to
Miami Florida. SPFB!! The park has been
closed for the last year for renovations.
Some campsites have been eliminated, some enlarged, and some still
should be enlarged. The old relic of a
bathhouse has been torn down and rebuilt but has to be closed again to make the
MANY repairs needed! Our site gets full
sun all day so we’re grateful for the awning and the sunscreen that provides
some respite from the heat. The back of
the trailer faces a shaded area where a resident hawk resides! The early mornings are full of her raucous
calls as she swoops after the small gray squirrels! The lights on the bathhouse do a great job of attracting the many
types of moths, including one large Sphinx moth. It was docile enough to climb on my fingers and allow me to carry
it home for some pictures! The next day
it was back in it’s spot on the bathhouse wall!
The weather has been HOT, HUMID and FULL of small black
hungry mosquitoes. The air conditioner
has been on every day – and the one in the truck works great too! LOTS of day trips! One was to Everglade City with a stop at the National Park
Visitor Center and more stops to watch the resting pelicans on top of the
pylons along the many bayous lined with moored boats. A “scenic” route on our
way home was supposed to be an 11-mile side-trip but ended up being 4 hours of
heat, dust and monster potholes!
Another early morning jaunt was to retrace our path to the
beach in Naples. Our day’s exercise was to walk along the crashing waves to the
pier and back. Marco Island was another
favorite destination! Their new museum
was a refreshing cool stop! Parking
lots near the beaches were $8 but we found the perfect spot down the road to
park the truck in the shade. Our
little bikes were unfolded and we rode up the multi use sidewalk to one of the
narrow public accesses between the tall resorts lining the beach dunes. While not the snow-white sand of the upper
Gulf Beaches – these beaches were still wide and clean - and sprinkled with
millions of small beautifully perfect shells!
One morning H got to go shoot some skeet at a gun club
farther down Rt 41. From there we went
exploring a subdivision and marina across the highway. The dark water of the marina was full of all
kinds of things – motor boats, sailing ships, manatee tour boats and a long
dark gnarly looking sleuth of a gator!
On the edge of one of the retention ponds in the housing section there
was another large black creature sleeping on the bank – within 30 feet or so
from the lovely home next to the pond!
Yipes!
Our new Illinois friends, J&A, who we met in Trimble
Park and again at WP Franklin, arrived the weekend after we did. Their stay was only 2 days as they are on
their way back north. She graciously
invited me to join her in visiting the Naples Botanical Garden. The wonderfully colorful gardens at the
Toledo Zoo are something to see and the fantastic Thomas Kincaid like gardens
at the Butchart Gardens on Victoria Island, Canada is out of this world! This spacious botanical paradise took us
from tropical Florida to the floral jungles of South America and then
transported us to Oriental paths in the Japanese section! There were exotic trees and shrubs with
strange names and equally strange blooms in vibrant shades of reds, oranges,
yellows and purple! There were deep
dark calming reflection pools, splashing fountains and relaxing waterfalls!
Luckily, there was lots of shade and a soothing breeze! The amazing conclusion of our visit was the
orchid collection, hidden in a dappled sunlit nook of trees, slabs of bark and
bubbling collections of water. Orchids
of every size and every color hung in wooden baskets or clung to branches in
the small trees! After 2 hours in the
heat we were both beginning to melt and our 2 heroes soon rescued us and took
us out for a seafood lunch!
Naples has several interesting and unique museums. The first
we toured was the Collier County Museum.
It shows the development of Florida’s “last frontier”. It is a 5-acre historical park, which
includes a 1910 Steam Engine, a 1920’s swamp buggy, a WWII Sherman tank and a
Seminole Indian Village replica. The
Naples Depot Museum is set in Naples’ first passenger train station. It focuses on how generations of Floridians
used transportation and technology to conquer the vast wilderness that was
Florida. Plus - sitting out front was
one of H’s favorite old cars a Studebaker Avanti! There were several railroad cars outside for touring, too.
